Apache down every week (caught SIGTERM)

I've been looking around for some time to find any helpful topics on the web but wasn't lucky so far. Let's try it this way.

My system is a Debian 3.1 version (Postfix, Apache2 (Apache/2.0.54 mod_ssl/2.0.54), MySql and Proftp, also).

And here's my problem (and I think it's not related to system only):
Every Sunday my Apache goes down so I sat down and checked the logs. The only thing I found, is an entry in /var/log/apache2/error.log which says:

Code:

[Sun Aug 06 06:25:02 2006] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down

Well, every Sunday means that it has something to do with the crons running on my system. So I checked the weekly cron in /etc/cron.weekly and found the standard files which are:

As far as I understand the cron is restarting the apache but apache waits for the SSL private key password but there's no one who types it in - right? So it sends the SIGTERM signal and that's it: no Website online

Now my question: am I right? Is this the problem and if so how do I make sure that when apache is restarting, the password is submitted automatically?

OK, I found one solution but I'm not very happy with it because it reduces the cert security level.

To get rid of the pass phrase request, simply create a new key without the -des3 (or what ever you've chosen) option.

Here's a very short (I'm sure you'll find these information 1 billion times on the net much better described than here) how to Apache-SSL / Apache ModSSL key and CSR Generation without pass phrase instructions:

1. Generate the private key

Code:

openssl genrsa –out yourdomain.com.key 1024

insted of: openssl genrsa –des3 yourdomain.com.key 1024

Click to expand...

2. Generate the CSR

Code:

openssl req –new –key yourdomain.com.key –out yourdomain.com.csr

3. Request the CRT from a CA Unit or create your own one.

4. Edit Apache's conf and restart.

Apache will never again ask you to enter the pass for your privat key and you don't have to worry about cron jobs that require to restart Apache.

WARNING: Use this way only if you absolutely trust the server, and you make sure the permissions are carefully set!

I guess when you created the certificates for Apache, you chose to encrypt the private key with a pass phrase (as shown here for ISPConfig's Apache: http://www.ispconfig.org/manual_installation.htm ). If you do this, then Apache always needs human intervention (someone who types in the pass phrase) to start/restart. Therefore you should choose not to encrypt the private key.

I have same problem with Ubuntu Server 8.04. every package is in its default version. The fact is that I haven't enabled SSL at all. so the problem can't be caused by SSL or something.
I checked configuration and found out that logrotate is killing my apache. but there are no error messages in the log only one line: caught SIGTERM, shutting down.
I tried "apache2ctl configtest" and it says I have no problem with my config file.

PS: I tried once to install cpanel but I didn't complete the installation procedure, cpanel is not working now, but its files are in my /usr/local/cpanel.